Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-10-29
THE CARE OF CLIPPINGS.
Hints to Literary Folk Who are Prone to
 Use Scissors and Paste.

Use Scissors and Paste.
 Probably no one who has had any lit- erary work in hand has not made more or less effort to systematize his pamphlets, newspapers and notes by the way of such classification as shall make them easy of reference. The usual experience of scrap books is an experience of failure.
 Commonplace books, too, are tried by hundreds, and while these are somewhat better, they fail to provide for the classi- fication and reference of cuttings. Con- monplace books serve for citations or for the record of your own thoughts. But their sphere is a limited one, and they have the same trouble as the scrapbook- it is almost impossible to index them.
 The scrapbook and the commonplace book, though they are good things in their way, are thus of real practical serv- ice in the hands of but few. A thing pasted is thing spoiled. A common place book entry is apt to be thing hid den and inaccessible. Is there no better way?
 There is a much better way. There is asimple system of classification by boxes or pigeon holes, which suits cuttings, pamphlets, manuscript notes, and, in short, memoranda of all kinds. It is a system which originated in the ingenious brain of an Italian librarian some years ago, and one which has been applied with great elaborateness to the classification of books in the Columbia College library in New York city, under the expert admin istration of MT. Melvil Dewey. The method is simple one. First classify your cuttings, notes, pamphlets, mem- oranda, under ten numbered primary heads; then subclassify them decimally, according to the amount of matter under each head to be classified. In this sub division each number will represent sub- ject, and the subjects may be subdivided indefinitely. For an ordinary collection of cuttings begin with ten boxes, each box to contain its appropriate topic. The ten topics are in order as follows: co. General Works: as bibliography, cyclo- paedias, periodicals, newspapers, book rarities. 10. Philosophy: as metaphys- ics, logic. psychology, ethics. 20. Re igion. 30. Sociology: as statistics, law, education, customs, folk lore. 40. Philology: all the languages. 50. Nat ural Science: mathematics, astronomy | physics, chemistry, geology, botany and the rest. 60. Useful Arts: medicine, engineering, technology commerce, build. ing, etc. 70. Fine Arts. 80. Litera- ture. 90. History.
 ] These are the ten serviceable divisions of all knowledge, according to the scheme. To each is allotted a box. When any box overtiows, add as many subdivisions in new boxes as are needed. Thus, if under l 30, Literature, there is an excess, the sub l division S1 will be for American literature f-62 for English, 55 for French, and so on Each division can be subdivided as ofter as IS needed, even into several places oi | decimals, as in Columbia College library l and each number will express the char acter of the subject, according to tht elaborate scheme which MT. Dewey ha. printed. But the beauty of the system ii that it applies as well to the smallest al to the largest collection. You may no fill ten boxes at once, but begin with ten The scheme is equally applicable to { collection of newspaper cuttings, and tt the largest library.
 The classification is one that I hay, tried with most successful results. Tn, number on each box indicates the subiec down to any required degree of particu larity. A glance shows where a givel cutting, pamphlet or manuscript needed will be found, and as given subject ex bands the overflow goes into new boxes l should explain that in filling the boxe it will often happen that some of the ar ticles seem to fall equally well under tw, divisions. In this case, to avoid any pos sible doubt, I have recourse to cata logue of entry slips, in which I record tn place of the doubtful article. Suppose for instance, have a pamphlet on 9Th History of Science" To make sure should not search first under History ana then under Science before finding it, enter this pamphlet under the author name, and refer to box 50, Science. Il this way the work of indexing is reduce. to a minimum; for e-tenths of the ar ticles classified find themselves, as it were and the index is needed only in a fey cases like this have mentioned. Anothe great advantage of this plan is that noth ing is pasted down. Everything is mov able, and everything can be used in nev combinations. Titus Munson Coan in Tn Writer.